Gun rights advocates are celebrating a significant victory following the Trump administration’s decision not to appeal a recent ruling that eases restrictions on firearm suppressors and certain other weapons, a move hailed by Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., as the “greatest restoration” of Second Amendment rights in nearly a century. Clyde, a former firearms business owner, argued that the original 1934 National Firearms Act, which imposed a $200 tax and federal registration requirements on items like silencers and short-barreled rifles, unconstitutionally taxed a fundamental right, rendering it unaffordable and thus, not a true right. The recent One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) reduced this tax to zero, a change that gun rights groups leveraged to successfully argue in court that the associated registration requirements were unconstitutional. While the ruling currently only applies to parties involved in the lawsuit and is not a nationwide injunction, the Department of Justice’s decision not to appeal means this deregulation can proceed without immediate legal challenge, a move decried by gun violence prevention groups as a failure to protect public safety. Clyde, alongside 47 other Republican lawmakers, had urged Attorney General Todd Blanche to forgo an appeal, stating it would prolong regulatory uncertainty and waste DOJ resources defending a position already rejected by Congress and a federal court, emphasizing that protecting the Second Amendment is crucial for safeguarding all other constitutional rights.
Adapted from: Latest Political News on Fox News
